MOBILE, Alabama --- Recent “Nutcracker” sightings are irrefutable evidence that the holiday season is upon us.

More than a century old, Tchaikovsky’s beloved masterpiece remains one of our most cherished holiday traditions and is so deeply embedded in our collective psyche that we cannot imagine the Christmas season without it.

“The Nutcracker,” which had its first performance in 1892, is as familiar to most Americans as Mickey Mouse and Elvis Presley, and quite nearly as ubiquitous during December when every dance company from Maine to Miami and Monterey (California) stages some permutation of the ballet.

Here on the Gulf Coast, where Mobile Ballet opens its “Nutcracker” season next weekend with three performances at Mobile Civic Center Theater. Guest artists will be Rebecca Krohn and Craig Hall of New York City Ballet. (See information box.)

Krohn performed with Mobile Ballet once before when dancers from New York City Ballet came to town for the company’s season opening gala. She danced Balanchine’s “Apollo” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain.”

“It was such a pleasure to meet and work with Winthrop Corey,” she says, “and I am really looking forward to returning to Alabama once again.”

The dancer says she is looking forward to performing in “The Nutcracker” with her NYCB colleague, Craig Hall. The two danced together in Chicago.

“I have been dancing in New York City Ballet for 12 years, six of which I have been a soloist,” Krohn says. “The Sugar Plum Fairy is a role I just started to dance for the company last year. I have, however, performed it many times in other productions around the country.”

Krohn says Sugar Plum is “an extremely demanding role technically that has to be performed with the utmost grace.”

“You can never allow the audience to see you struggle or see how hard it is,” she says.

Krohn says she first saw the ballet when she was 4 and “it was what led me to begin ballet lessons.”

“I think that is precisely what makes the ballet so special,” she says. “It is the perfect introduction to ballet for young children.”

Craig Hall, who will make his Mobile debut, has been a soloist with New York City Ballet for four years and has danced “The Nutcracker” for two decades, since he was 12.

“Even though NYCB does so many performances of it — close to 50, I think — it is always so magical for the kids who come and see it for the first time,” he says, “and that always makes me happy and pushes me to get through them.”

Hall usually dances the role of the Candy Cane or Tea in the New York staging, but he dances the Cavalier when he is a guest artist elsewhere. He has danced with Rebecca Krohn as a student 13 years ago “and a handful of times professionally.”

They recently danced together in Jerome Robbins’ “Glass Pieces” and in “NY Export: Opus Jazz,” in “After the Rain” and Peter Martins’ “Swan Lake.”

Hall’s first experience with “The Nutcracker” was Mikhail Baryshnikov’s famous version when he was a youngster.

“I fell in love with the music,” he says. “The first time I danced it, I was a Russian dancer. I’m still dancing to the same music today and it still gives me that sense of excitement and nervousness when I hear it.”

He performed “The Nutcracker” originally outside of Chicago for about five years, many times with NYCB and as a guest soloist in Chicago, Connecticut, Upstate New York and (next weekend) in Mobile.

Hall says the allure of “The Nutcracker” is no mystery.

“One, I think it involves so many children, and that’s why so many kids come to see it,” he says. “I think it is easier for them to relate to it. Theirs is also so much color in the music and costumes and sets, it’s very pleasing to your eyes and ears.

“It’s also a nice alternative to Santa Claus and elves during the holiday season — you already get enough of that everywhere else.”

'The NUTCRACKER'

WHAT: Mobile Ballet presents “The Nutcracker”

WHEN: at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 11

WHERE: Mobile Civic Center Theater

MUSIC: Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky

DIRECTOR: Winthrop Corey, artistic director for Mobile Ballet

CAST: Rebecca Krohn will dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy; her Cavalier will be Craig Hall, also a soloist with NYC Ballet. Also: Dailey Dexter and Emma Fontenot dancing the role of Clara; and Lauren Woods as the Snow Queen and Dew Drop; with guest artists Ryan Carroll, William Blanken, Robert Biggs.

ADMISSION: $45, $30 and $20, with discounts for children, students and seniors

ELSEWHERE: Bay Shore Ballet will perform “The Nutcracker” at 2 p.m. (preview ticket prices $5) and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 and 3 p.m. Dec. 11 at Fairhope Civic Center, 161 N. Section St., Fairhope. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and children 12 and younger; available at the Coffee Loft, Page & Palette, at the door or by calling 251-990-9744. Reserved seating, call Trin Ollinger at 251-583-3875“The Nutcracker,” a ballet in two acts, was choreographed originally by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” the ballet had its premiere Dec. 18, 1892, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky’s opera “Iolanta.”

There are endless versions of and homages to “The Nutcracker,” as any devotee will tell you.

Disney included a “Nutcracker” interlude in his wondrous “Fantasia,” the 1940 animated film; and there is the Tom ‘n’ Jerry version, the Barbie doll version, and (according to Wikipedia) even a Care Bears version, believe it or not.Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn wrote a “Nutcracker Suite” for the Duke’s orchestra, and there’s also “The Swingin’ Nutcracker.”

San Francisco Ballet and its artistic director William Christensen staged the first comprehensive United States performance on Christmas Eve 1944. New York City Ballet delivered its first performance of George Balanchine’s staging of “The Nutcracker” a decade later, and the tradition of performing the complete ballet at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States.

No one knows this ballet better than Winthrop Corey, artistic director for Mobile Ballet, who performed for 17 years with Royal Winnipeg Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and as guest artist with companies nationwide. He also danced the role of the Cavalier with his company, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, and has choreographed the piece fr 30-plus years. This is his 23rd “Nutcracker” with Mobile Ballet.

He met Krohn in fall 2010 when she and a few of her colleagues came to Mobile for the season-opening gala.

“She was brilliant and I liked her a lot,” he says. At a post-performance reception, he asked her to return for “The Nutcracker” and she agreed.

Corey says Krohn has the “womanly” quality that his Sugar Plum requires.

“Not all dancers have that,” Corey says. “When I think of Sugar Plum, I think about every little girl in the audience looking at this creature they’ve read about and dreamed about, and . . . for her to come on stage very warm and gentle, that’s the quality I think works best.”

Don’t expect major changes in Corey’s vision of “The Nutcracker.” A bit of choreography here and there, he says, and a few of the costumes.

“What I wanted to do is continue to get the second act really colorful,” he says. “Last year I did ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ in what some people thought were ‘shocking’ colors.”

Corey is referring to tle lime-green silk with red and pink — which worked rather well in the end.

“This year I fiddled with the Mirlitons and the Spanish (costumes) are a little different.”

His primary focus was the Harlequin and Columbine dolls in Act I. He took his cue from old French lithographs. The tricky part was locating the diamond-patterned Harlequin fabric. He found some on eBay — at a bargain price.

The fabric should provide the desired visual effect, but pattern is not what audiences remember, Corey says: “What people remember are the colors.”

This year marks the company’s 15th annual production of this famous ballet, celebrated and beloved throughout the world. Janet Carole, artistic director, is a former principal ballerina with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, Oakland Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet

Carole has reset the story in full two acts, with more than 60 dancers from Fairhope and the surrounding area. The production features sets and scenery by Leanne Pearson Scenic Designs, featuring the backdrop artistry of the late William Loyed.

A scene from Mobile Ballet's 2010 production of The Nutcracker. (Press-Register/Lyle W. Ratliff)

Bay Shore Ballet Theatre principal dancer Kristiana Bell will alternate with Lauren Aldridge in the role of Sugar Plum. Principals Tracy Peters and Glorianne Morrow are the Snow Queen and the Rose Queen. Clara is danced alternately by Susan Roh and Annie Laurie O’Neill. Ellis Ollinger portrays the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer; the role of the Nutcracker Prince is played by Zack Woods.

Information, call 251-990-9744 or go to www.bayshoreballet.com.

You say you just can’t get enough of Sugar Plum, snow fairies and the Kingdom of Sweets? Not to worry. New York City Ballet and NCM Fathom will bring the show to a theater near you.

George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” will be shown live in more than 550 movie theaters nationwide at 5 p.m. (Central Time) Dec. 13 featuring guest host Kelly Ripa. The telecast will include a behind-the-scenes look at the magic of “The Nutcracker” including interviews with NYCB principal dancers and others who bring the holiday classic to life onstage.

Locally, “The Nutcracker” will be shown at Hollywood Stadium 18 in Mobile and Cobb Pinnacle 14 in Gulf Shores.

Tickets are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com . For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the NCM Fathom website. Theaters and ticket prices are subject to change.

“We are thrilled to bring this beloved holiday production to audiences around the country in what we hope will be the first of many opportunities to present New York City Ballet’s extraordinary repertory in movie theaters throughout the world,” says Katherine E. Brown, executive director of New York City Ballet.

The production will feature NYCB principal dancers Megan Fairchild and Joaquin de Luz as Sugar Plum and her Cavalier, and Ashley Bouder as Dew Drop. They will be accompanied by the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra under the direction of conductor Clotilde Otrano.

Other highlights of the presentation include an onstage snowstorm and hundreds of elaborate costumes including one for “Mother Ginger” that measures 9 feet wide and weighs 85 pounds. The production’s grand finale will also use more than a million watts of lighting.

Balanchine’s “Nutcracker” has scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production will feature more than 70 New York City Ballet dancers and 50 children from the School of American Ballet.

This production, which premiered Feb. 2, 1954, at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York City, helped establish “The Nutcracker” and its score as a perennial favorite in the United States.